Picture this: You’re sitting in church on Sunday morning. Your pastor is talking about the upcoming election. Then something happens that would have been unthinkable just yesterday.
The pastor looks at the congregation and says, “I believe Candidate Smith is the right choice for our community.”
That pastor no longer has to worry about losing the church’s tax-free status. The IRS just changed everything.
What Just Happened
On Monday, the IRS filed papers in a Texas court that flipped decades of rules upside down. Since 1954, a provision in the tax code called the Johnson Amendment says that churches and other nonprofit organizations could lose their tax-exempt status if they participate in, or intervene in “any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”
The IRS now says churches can endorse candidates during regular worship services. They just have to do it through their normal ways of talking to their congregation about faith matters.
The IRS said:
“Communications from a house of worship to its congregation in connection with religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of faith do not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted,”
Think of it like this: The IRS is treating church endorsements like a family talking politics around the dinner table. It’s just part of discussing life through the lens of faith.
Why This Matters to Conservatives
This is huge for conservatives who believe in religious freedom and limited government. For 70 years, the government has been telling churches what they can and can’t say about elections. That never sat right with people who think the First Amendment means what it says.
President Trump promised to get rid of this rule completely.
Trump said at a National Prayer Breakfast in 2017:
“I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution,”
This change gives pastors the freedom to speak their minds without looking over their shoulders. Churches can finally talk about candidates the same way they talk about other moral issues.
It also limits government power over religious groups. When the IRS can threaten to take away a church’s tax-free status, that’s the government controlling what people can say in their own houses of worship. Conservatives have always said that’s backwards.
The Legal Fight That Made This Happen
This didn’t happen by accident. Two Texas churches and the National Religious Broadcasters sued the IRS last year, alleging that the Johnson Amendment violated their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and expression of religion.
Instead of fighting the lawsuit, the IRS basically threw in the towel. They’re asking the court to make this official and stop them from going after churches for political endorsements.
The reality is that the IRS rarely enforced the rule anyway. A 2022 investigation by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune found that at least 18 churches had endorsed political candidates, and the agency largely looked the other way.
What Critics Are Saying
Not everyone is happy about this change. Many religious leaders actually oppose it.
A 2019 survey from Pew Research Center found that 76% of U.S. adults, including 70% of Christians, say churches and other houses of worship should not come out in favor of one candidate over another.
Some worry that politics will divide congregations. Others think churches should stay focused on spiritual matters, not elections.
The National Association of Evangelicals found that nearly 90 percent of evangelical leaders do not think pastors should endorse politicians from the pulpit in its February 2017 survey.
The argument goes that churches are supposed to be places where people come together, not places that split along party lines.
What’s Next
The court still has to approve this settlement. Once that happens, these churches will be permanently protected from IRS enforcement of the old rule.
This could open the floodgates. If churches see they can endorse candidates without consequences, more pastors might start speaking up about elections.
Republicans in Congress have already introduced bills to scrap the Johnson Amendment completely for all nonprofits, not just churches. This IRS change might give them momentum.
This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
